Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi!
His stay looks great and he has great commitment to the line. Super!!!When you release to send to the jump, keep your dog-side arm lower and you can use it to point to the takeoff spot (along with step to it with your leg). That will help you get the big end and lots of connection, and also it will help you be able to push off to run to your next position 🙂 He read all the cues really well, so now you can play with stepping to the takeoff of 2 as soon as he lands from 1, and then starting the FC before he arrives at 2 (starting it no later than halfway between 1 and 2)
He had one question at 1:48 – on the serp lead out/lead out push, maintain connection and arm back all the way through the line until he takes off for jump 3. It is the connection and serp shoulders staying open that cue him to turn away to the next jump.
Outdoor part of the session – your arm was able to move more freely without holding the toy so connection was automatically better 🙂 Yay!
Moving up the line on the parallel path was easy peasy, and maintaining connection through the threadles looked great and really helped him find the line. He did great!!!
Nice work on these!!!
Tracy
Hi! He did really well with the backsides too! And the tunnel was not a distraction for him at all. Yay!
The main suggestion here is to have your dog side arm supporting his line more as you connect, rather than pointing ahead.
When you point ahead he looked at you more especially at :44 (he took the front of the jump there). Pointing ahead and looking ahead turns all of the physical cues to the front side of the bar, and that overrides the verbal especially with young dogs.
Compare to :57, for example, where you had a lower arm that was following his nose and not pointing ahead and a lot more connection to him – note how he looked at you lot less and just zipped directly to the backside. Lovely!
When you were on the other side, we have a better visual of how the high arm changes the body language and turns you away from the parallel path so he looks at you a bit more (like at 1:51). He did go to the backside here because of the learning history of “this is a backside game” 🙂 but in a novel setup he might end up on the futon side. At 1:58 you were much more connected and on a better parallel path, so he didn’t have glance up at you. So allow your hand to follow his nose as you move up the parallel line and make connection, to help him find the backsides without any glances towards you 🙂
The FCs on the landing side and the circle wraps looked good! It sounds like you were using the same verbal for the slices and the circle wraps. Something to consider is one verbal for the slices and a different one for the wraps (I use “back” and “dig dig”). That helps the dogs differentiate the collection required, especially for when we are not ahead of them to help them with physical cues.
The countermotion exits looked strong! You can add more motion coming up the line so you can get ahed of him more for the countermotion – that will challenge him to maintain commitment even as you pass the wing before he. Takes off.
Great job!
TracyNice work here, he found the correct tunnel entry on every rep! Yay! The straight entries to the tunnel all looked great 🙂
The threadles are going well – his line is much smoother when you look at him as he comes around the wing and as you cue the threadle (for example at :14, :35, and 1:30 – great connection, very smooth lines!) When you looked at the tunnel more than at him, he looked up at you to double check the info, then he would turn back to the tunnel (:07, :31, and 1:20 for example). So keep up with the strong connection and it will be very smooth and fast.As you add more speed to this (like the race tracks before the tunnel threadle) – have the toy tucked away so you can use your arms freely 🙂 I know, I am a pain LOL!!!! But you will feel the difference in how much easier it is to run and connect 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
He did really well with the collections here, and the GO lines looked great too!
You can time your deceleration to begin sooner. Remember that the decel can start as he is passing the first cone (regardless of where you are) – it looks like you were starting it when you were arriving at the 2nd cone, more than based on his position.Looking at the timing: At :17 and :41, you were at the 2nd cone and he was approx halfway between the 2 cones, so he got a nice collection there! Compare those to the reps at :23 and :47 – you decelerated when you reached the 2nd cone but he was also at/passsing the 2nd cone, so his turn was wider. It was a low height bar so he was still able to turn, but it was more after landing. So you can start the decel when he passes cone 1 and ee if he can both commit and turn before takeoff.
Like with the diamond game, this is a game where the toy will be easier in your hand – having it in your armpit is restricting your dog side shoulder and inhibits connection, because you can’t look back to him without dropping the toy. And seeing him better will help you be able to decelerate sooner!
Nice work!
TracyHi!
Get out is looking good! He is responding super nicely to the use of the outside arm! You can amplify the connection as you start the outside arm cue to get an earlier response – as soon as he exits the start wing, you can look at him *very* directly while you do the rest of the cue (the arm and motion like you did here). And he was SUPER about *not* taking the jump when you ran past it. YAY!!! You can definitely move to the advanced level now, where you add the cross after the get out cue 🙂
Nice work!
TracyThis is also going well! He figured out how to stay on the other sided of the tunnel really well 🙂 Adding extra jumps tended to get too much extension to find the turn to the tunnel easily, so keeping it to one jump behind the tunnel will help challenge him to both find the jump and also make it easier to time the turn cues to the tunnel (before he takes off for the jump – probably when he is about 10 feet away from it). He did have a little question about the threadles at the end, probably because they were out of context. It will be easier for him to read those when he is coming on from the front side of the tunnel 🙂
Nice work!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The Diamond games are looking really strong, the work you’ve put in really shows!
The best part of it was that you had really great connection on all the sessions here – great connection on the simpler lines as well as on the exit of the crosses. It was clear and he had no questions, especially on those tight blinds! Great job keeping your arms low and back to really let him see the connection.
His commitment is looking really strong – you can start the blinds sooner 🙂 The best timing here was at :31, when he was maybe halfway between 2 wings and you started the blind. Perfect!!! The others had you starting when he was closer to the wing (like at 1:46), which delays the exit info a little and he looks up at you, waiting for more info.
During the 2nd session (indoors): Yes, you had different barrel #2 but you were still getting it done! I am sure it felt weird but nice clear connection still got him knowing which barrel you were moving towards.
One suggestion is to carry the toy in your pocket or hand so it is easier to run with both arms. Having it in your arm pit is restricting your running because that side of your body has to hold pretty tight to hold the toy.
The race tracks at the end looked great! The toy was in your hand, he had no trouble with it. Super!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Good job having the arms and connection in place before the release, they were distinctly separate here and that helps the stay behavior a whole lot! Yay!He did well with this, especially on the reps where you were not moving as much.
>>We weren’t very successful with the serp line if he couldn’t see me through the uprights.>>
The serp position between the uprights is important, so it makes sense that he needed to see you there. I think he as having trouble with the lower body motion overriding the upper body arm cues for the serps/threadles. The lower body is a lot more visible because he is small 🙂
Your timing of the upper body cues got earlier and clearer as the session went along – you were a little late at :16 and :44, for example, with opening your arm back for the serp. But then at 1:03, 1:19 and beyond you got earlier and earlier which helped!Things went better when you were not moving as much, so something that helps small dogs see the serp and threadle cue better as you add motion is if you dip your shoulder down towards him – that movement plus the serp or threadle arm makes the cues more visible, which should help the upper body override the motion of the lower body.
That is probably all he needs – the added dip of the shoulder – for you to add more and more motion 🙂
Keep me posted on the tunnel threadle! If he was having trouble reading it, the question might be similar to what he was asking here – upper body not as visible as lower body. So you can try dipping your shoulder down to him and see if that helps.
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
>>He flew through the tunnel, then when I tried jump and tunnel he was blind to the jump 😅 More tugging it is!>>
Ha! Yes – the joys of that tunnel-vision in arousal. Sometimes it works in our favor, sometimes not so much LOL!!! But it is easy to rehearse and he will figure it out for sure.
>>One thing about our class is that it’s in a small training facility. He will never be able to jump full height there for one. And we rarely sees distances of more than 6ft between obstacles. >>
The tiny distances can be used as jump grid opportunities, like the little pinwheel he did – the close jumps and low heights make it more of a jumping exercise than a handling exercise and that is still very valuable! For handling, say you have 3 jumps in a row at 6 feet apart… maybe ask the instructor to pull out the middle jump, so you only have 2 jumps but t it will be more like 12 feet.
>>Plenty of distractions working around other dogs though, so that’s where I see a lot of value (video from tonight)>>
I agree – this is incredibly valuable and he looked great in the video! And the tunnel games are great too, because tall dogs don’t always love ducking down into tunnels.
>>Also, he did fill in these past few weeks! I like to think fitness is also contributing to the changes.>>
Yes! It is impressive how quickly the dogs can get fitter and it makes such a big difference 🙂
>>While I figure out where I can train with him at a bigger venue (and when it makes sense to start that, and who the right people to do that with are).>>
I will poke around in your area and see who is close enough to train with, that will also be a good fit with your style of training 🙂 Stay tuned for more info!
Oh no! I hope the trial stuff gets easier!!! At least you got to do a fun seminar! This class runs until May 15th 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
Tunnel threadles – he was readying things well, but like you mentioned, not moving at his usual speed.
>> I didn’t quite have it down & Indy could tell. I think I was really demotivating him.>>
I think it was a deceleration question: not enough motion. You can spread things out so there is more motion for you both (15 to 18 feet between the wings and the tunnel should help get more acceleration, and feel free to add even more distance depending on how much you want to run 🙂 You didn’t have a lot of room to go fast, so he was questioning if he should read your motion as decel or if he should stay in extension. Since we don’t want to dilute the deceleration, spreading the distances out will help! You were trying to compensate with more arm movement but I think that blocked connection and turned your shoulders away from the line, so he slowed down waiting for more info (like at 1:30)
Lateral lead outs: These went really well! And using the mat helped to get him to stay and on different angles. The harder angle a 3:05 took him a moment to read, but then he got it nicely and the other reps looked good too, with you on both sides of the jump and also with you adding crosses after jump 1. Super!
He is a little confused about the release: you are moving at the same time (arm movement and shoulder leaning forward), so if you don’t say the release and move anyway (like at 2:47) he will release.
To avoid this confusion, you can get to position, raise your arm, stand still, then release. That should clarify for him that is the verbal release he needs to wait for, not just the movement.
The zig zags looked good! Definite improvement! You can add the bars to them from the next zig zag lesson (one end of the bar on the jump cup, the other on the ground). You had very clear cues (he only missed one, then you made the cue bigger) so as the bars go in, you can keep those really big obvious cues with arms/shoulders and feet to help him find the line.
He did well with the serp versus the tunnel too! I think he is ready to see you walking into position and releasing as you are walking, like he would see on a course (the cue coming as you are moving).
For both the tunnel and the serp cue, you can separate the verbal release from the movement. It looks like he thinks the movement is part of the release here too, because all of the releases had the arm movement. And the one time you did the arm movement and did’t say the word… he released (5:44). I can see his argument here LOL! So, to clarify it – get your shoulders into position for the cue you want to give, wait for a heartbeat or two, then say the release. As you add movement to it (moving forward along the line) you can have your shoulders already in position and release as you are moving. You are moving for several steps before the release in that case, so they won’t get paired accidentally like they do when we release and move at the same time.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
That is the thing about dog training… we keep learning and learning 🙂 I like your plan to keep him in FEO for a while to kind of ease him into the harder trial environments!
Have fun!
Tracy
Hi!
Generally when we get the freezing on the start line, it is either too much pressure or something is ouchy.
So for the ouchy possibility, see if you can get her into a massage or Chiro to make sure nothing is bothering her or tight or sore.
For the pressure possibility: she has been doing a lot of things that an be pressure games lately: lots of jump grids from stays (that is a HARD visual when sitting in front of a grid!) as well as the station work and the harness stuff… so even if it is not all stays, there might be a pressure build up and her brain needs some time to let it go. So take all stay behavior out of her life (all of it, that is HARD for us humans) for a week or so, and just do silly fun stuff race tracks and running through tunnels. (No jumps though, in case there is an ouch factor in play). Then come back to adding some fun stays back in (like in front of her favorite tunnel or jump :)) for short easy games. You can toggle the hard stuff back in, but over-balance it for now with easy peasy fun run run run stuff because, well…. Adolescence 🙂 Adolescent dogs are far more susceptible to feeling the pressure and we see stuff like freezing when there is pressure.
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
The tandem were a little late on some reps and on some you turned your feet to the new line to early. Good job just staying in motion on those.To help make the tandems less late, you can call her name before she enters the tunnel to put her into handler focus so she exits looking for you. Then even if you are a stride late, she will still be ready to receive the info. The last one was well-timed, especially coming after the big race track! Yay!
>>However using go instead of directionals for the racetrack parts really seemed to help her out – she just flew on those parts and no pop rock explosions ensued. Even got a tunnel threadle.>>
Yes, the go is really stimulating and fun and those race tracks do have a lot of extension, so she really liked the go cue and the running 🙂
For now, do more of the race tracks and less of the turning and hard handling stuff (see next post for why) so she can just have the joy of relatively mindless running for a week or so 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi!
>> I got totally behind on my videos the last 4 weeks.
You did get a lot of videos posted, so that is really great! Originally you were not too sure about getting any posted, and you did a lovely job getting a lot of games posted 🙂
>>Not sure if I should repeat MAX 3 as a worker or just keep going and finish Max 3 on my own.>>
Keep going then join up in MaxPup 4 (after the summer :))
>> My question is do you suggest another course I could take that I can send videos and get feedback for Seren. >>
MaxPup 4 is the next one, and it also hits on getting ready for trialing. I don’t have a start date for it yet, stay tuned!
>>he would do a few obstacles and then go visit ring crew and after restart he would do a few more and then go sit near score table and refuse to rejoin me on course.>>
Yes, he looked stressed in the video. I love your idea of doing a TON of FEO in CPE… smaller trials, less pressure, more fun. He is really young so you want to make it fun fun fun fun 🙂
>> At home and at class he is fine and loves training. >>
Rewards are very visible and predictable in those environments. Trials are radically different and unpredictable, so getting him used to the environment with FEO runs will really help.
> need to definitly be aware of his mental state and what he can handle at all times.>
Yes! It is hard for young dogs to go from training to trialing, so lots of toy-in-the-ring and not trying to Q will really help. Also, listen to the video with the sound up and your eyes closed: holy COW who was screaming in the other ring? What was the banging (teeter??) The noise was A LOT and I am sure that affected him too. He might not be ready for noisy 2 ring trials where people scream LOL!!!
Keep me posted 🙂
Tracy
